The Black Keys and Jack White are famously not fond of each other. Here’s why.

Vancouver, BC, Canada / The World Famous CFOX!

May 21, 2014 05:39 pm

The Black Keys and Jack White are famously not fond of each other, but the Keys think that they share a common enemy: gossip sites like TMZ. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney said, “I really think personal things are personal things. Like, TMZ? Honestly, they should be f***ing ashamed of themselves, that they make a living dragging poor souls that have nothing, that aren’t famous, into this world. Everybody should be scrutinized? I don’t believe that. . . . you’re a f***ing rock musician, you’re a f***ing actor, you’re a f***ing model or whatever. It’s your job, you know what I mean? No one’s doing anything illegal, it’s just that people are living lives that get complicated.”

Carney made his remarks in reference to a private email between White and his now ex-wife, Karen Elson, that was leaked last summer during a custody dispute over the couple’s two children.

In the email, White begged Elson to take his kids out of the same class as Auerbach’s daughter, and also accused the Keys of ripping him off. White and Auerbach both live in Nashville, where Auerbach was also apparently denied entry to an event at White’s Third Man Records compound.

Carney said that White “sounds like an a*****e,” but added that it wasn’t fair to White that his private emails were made public. Carney explained, “I actually feel embarrassed for him. I don’t hold grudges, man. I really don’t. We’ve all said f***ed-up s*** in private, and divorce is hard.”

All Auerbach, who went through a bitter divorce last year himself, would say about White was “I don’t know him, so it’s extra-unexpected.”

The Black Keys released their eighth album, Turn Blue, last week. Its first-week sales and chart figures will be available on Wednesday (May 21st). Jack White’s second solo album, Lazaretto, arrives on June 10th.

SIDE NOTES: Here’s what Jack White said about Dan Auerbach in that now-famous email: “My conce(r)n with Auerbach is because I don’t want the kids involved in any of that crap. That’s a possible 12 f***ing years I’m going to have to be sitting in kids chairs next to that a*****e with other people trying to lump us in together. He gets yet another free reign to follow me around and copy me and push himself into my world.”